Tag: Ritchie Blackmore

  • Not Good Enough or Not Pretty Enough? Why David Coverdale Sacked His Band…

    Not Good Enough or Not Pretty Enough? Why David Coverdale Sacked His Band…

        Extra bonus within!: A Playlist of Whitesnake songs that aren’t sexist! It’s 1979. Tonight, Whitesnake’s new drummer Ian Paice is making his debut at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. Lead singer David Coverdale is onstage, slaying the audience with a typically pelvis-thrusting performance. It’s a sexually charged, entendre-filled, microphone-extending act. But something is wrong. The two…

  • Show Offs: Why Is That Man Standing With His Legs Apart Whilst Overplaying His Guitar?

    Show Offs: Why Is That Man Standing With His Legs Apart Whilst Overplaying His Guitar?

    I’m Putting Rock On Trial! Have your say! Twenty five years on from the peak of heavy rock’s commercial popularity in 1988, this series asks why heavy rockers no longer dominate the charts and seeks to highlight the crimes that Heavy Rock is accused of, and give you the cases for and against. At the…

  • How to get a front row seat at a gig…

    How to get a front row seat at a gig…

    Deep Purple played Wembley Arena and the Birmingham N.E.C. on their House of Blue Light Tour – and this was my first chance to see Ritchie Blackmore. After just the one UK show in ’85, Deep Purple‘s 1987 tour to support their second comeback album “The House of Blue Light“, attracted a huge clamour for…

  • Why Deep Purple have not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…

    Why Deep Purple have not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…

    To know why Deep Purple matter, you just have to listen to the blistering, gonzoid opening of Speed King. If you can, do it now. This was 1970 – when people still thought Roger Whittaker was edgy. Nearly 42 years later, it’s still as joyful an explosion of noise as you will ever hear. Released…

  • Deep Purple at Knebworth – Mud and Bottles in ’85

    Deep Purple at Knebworth – Mud and Bottles in ’85

    The comeback concert that Deep Purple played at Knebworth in 1985 went down in history as one of the muddiest rock concerts of all time. As Blackadder once remarked about a girl with the worst personality in Germany – that’s up against some pretty stiff competition. It rained all day. The mud was six inches deep.…